Iowa teens inspired by Parkland students organize Capitol rally

Some Des Moines area students are joining a national walkout on April 20. In addition to the walkout, a rally will be held at the Iowa Capitol bldg.

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Michael Mitchell stands outside Timberline School in Waukee, where students will join a nationwide walkout later this month. Mitchell has been instrumental in organizing the walkout, and said he's doing it because he feels more needs to be done about mass shootings in United States schools.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)Buy Photo

Michael Mitchell was born three years after the Columbine school shooting.

The Waukee teen doesn't recall the fear that gripped the nation as two teenagers shot and killed 13 classmates and teachers before killing themselves on April 20, 1999.

But Friday morning — the 19th anniversary of the Colorado school shooting — he will walk out of his classroom, down the hallway and out the doors at Timberline School.

Thousands of students in Iowa and across the country are expected to walk out of school Friday to protest gun violence and call on lawmakers to make changes to gun laws.

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Students from schools around the Des Moines area (l-r) Hailey Morawski, Norwalk, Anna Van Heukelom of Roosevelt, Noah Percy of Norwalk, Ava Torres of Hoover, and Sam Spackman of Waukee pose for a photo on Saturday, April 14, 2018, at Smokey Row in Des Moines. The students are organizing a walkout on Friday, April 20, to coincide with the 19th anniversary of the deadly Columbine High School shooting.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

Mitchell was the walkout organizer at his school, which serves students in eighth and ninth grades.

The Waukee teenager said he was inspired by the activism of David Hogg and Emma González after the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The Parkland, Florida, students have became national figures after leading the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., engaging lawmakers on social media and leading boycotts against businesses affiliated with the NRA.

"We can change the future," Mitchell said. "Our voices will be heard."

'It grew and grew and grew'

Across Iowa, students have planned similar Friday morning walkouts at their schools. Many are scheduled for 10 a.m.

A group of 52 central Iowa students has also planned the Students United Against Gun Violence Walkout that's scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at the state Capitol building in Des Moines.

Organizers are expecting hundreds of students from the Des Moines area and beyond to attend.

"It grew and grew and grew and grew, because we realized so many students in the area were interested in making some kind of change around gun violence," said Sam Spackman, a Waukee senior and one of the event's organizers.

The teens say they want legislators to make "common-sense" gun and mental healthcare reforms.

"I hope they do realize that we are coming up to voting age and they do need to shift their policies if they want to stay in office," said Anna Van Heukelom, a senior at Roosevelt.

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Anna Van Heukelom, a student at Des Moines Roosevelt, is helping to organize a rally at the Iowa Capitol grounds following a school walkout on Friday, April 20, 2018.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

There will be a booth where teens can register to vote.

"It doesn't matter if you get 1,000 people there or 20 people at the Capitol if nothing happens later," Spackman said. "I'll feel more proud of what we've done later, if some kind of legislation gets passed."

'Why can't we do that?'

Rally organizers said they've heard from teens in more conservative areas of the state who have faced backlash from classmates after expressing their opinions on guns.

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Noah Percy of Norwalk is helping to organize a rally at the Iowa Capitol grounds following a school walkout on Friday, April 20, 2018.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

After a shooting at an Oregon community college in 2015, Norwalk senior Noah Percy wrote an opinion piece for his school newspaper that called for universal background checks and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Someone egged his house after the article ran and other students quit the newspaper because they disagreed with his stance, he said.

"People wouldn’t talk to me in class,” said Percy, who is helping organize the rally at the state Capitol.

But the disapproval of some of his peers hasn't stopped him from expressing his views.

He points to the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., as inspiration for the Capitol rally.

"We kind of thought, 'Why can't we do that on a local level?'" he said.